Compared with conventional surgery, laparoscopic surgery is an excellent means for achieving significant reductions in surgery-related morbidity. These reductions are achieved, however, only if the procedure is performed completely and without effective errors. Unfortunately, error-free laparoscopic surgeries are not the rule. Indeed, intra-operative and post-operative complications are all too common with laparoscopic surgery procedures. Because of this, there is a need to improve patient safety during laparoscopic surgery so that the benefits derived from such procedures are achieved while the drawbacks are reduced or eliminated.
One of the most profound drawbacks of laparoscopic surgery is the occurrence of unintentional or inadvertent injuries to patient tissue structures adjacent to or sometimes, distant from the intended surgical site or field. In the pelvic cavity, for example, bowels, ureters, large organs and blood vessels can be injured either directly from the heat or sharpness of the laparoscopic instruments, or burned indirectly through the conduction of heat through nearby tissues. Typically, such injuries are not appreciated at the time of surgery because the specific injury sites are hidden by blood or other patient tissues. As another disadvantage attendant to such iatrogenic injuries, the response to the unintended injury manifested by the patient is often a delayed one. This delayed response can be traumatic as well as tragic, and can sometimes result in one or more further surgeries, which would otherwise be unnecessary.
The implications from both a medical perspective as well as a medico-legal perspective are enormous. Obviously, such injuries are negative events and therefore best avoided. The present invention is therefore directed to reducing the occurrence and severity of these negative events.